On Friday, July 24th staff and volunteers at WFFT welcomed Apple and Princess! Mother and daughter were rescued after a very generous donation by Joan and her friends (again!).
We were informed by an elephant camp that mother and baby would soon be separated from each other as the baby was “for sale”, and as the baby “Princess” is only 8 months old, it was unacceptable for Joan and her Sydney group of friends to let this happen. A very generous donation towards the rescue was made and we decided to move both elephants, mother and daughter, to the WFFT elephant refuge as soon as possible…
On the day of arrival it was already getting dark so both elephants stayed the night in the newest elephant enclosure (15,000 sqm), for security reasons in the side enclosure for most of the night. Later in the next morning both went to the lake for a bath and were introduced to Thongdee, the almost blind elephant, who loves babies as she had two herself in the past. Mother and baby immediately accepted her presence.
In the coming few days we will let both girls get used to their new surroundings, and the chain are being removed. Only when the girls leave the enclosure the baby needs to be connected with a rope to her mother as she runs after everyone that she sees, and is scared of cows! Soon more
